Nissan GT-R In-Depth Test Drive: 2008's King of Design

It commands respect in a way that no swooping Italian supercar can. Its purposeful design, like Porsche's iconic 911, says speed without any extra glitz. Right off the bat, the sheer size of it is striking. It's huge--at 183.3 in. long, it's almost a foot longer than a 911, and it's half a foot wider than a Honda Civic, at 74.6 in.

But size doesn't matter. It's about the angles. If it were human, it'd be Jason Statham instead of Roger Moore--the kind of guy that flicks a cigarette on the ground and then unloads a really big handgun until every round in the clip is gone. It's the Nissan GT-R. And seeing it in person, as we did recently on a test drive in Japan, confirms that Nissan nailed the styling. Get all the new details in our extended drive report for one of 2008's top cars ...

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A key goal in designing the 2008 GT-R was to pay homage to the great GT-Rs of the past. Product Chief Designer Hiroshi Hasegawa points out that our favorite design element, a uniquely creased C-Pillar, has an in-house nickname: "Sword Pillar." It does more than help with aerodynamics (the car manages a slippery .27 coefficient of drag), it talks to the past. The circular taillights also pay homage to past GT-Rs.

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But function is every bit as important as form here. Those little NACA ducts on the hood direct air to the turbochargers. And every part of the car's gaping maw directs air to a specific location, from the front mounted intercoolers and radiator to the brakes, oil cooler and engine intake. Without referencing the 911 Turbo by name, Hasegawa pointed out that many supercars must sacrifice aerodynamics to cool critical components. The GT-R, in contrast, has two separate cooling paths, one channels air through the nose for the mechanicals, and the other flows it over a flat, mostly carbon fiber undertray to lower drag and create downforce.

Engineers had the seemingly unrealistic goal of creating a vehicle in which a casual conversation could be had--at 186mph. And that takes stability in the chassis. To accomplish the goal, Nissan uses an advanced laser alignment system, which cuts tolerances in chassis components by 68 percent and allows for incredibly precise adjustments. The car has six additional weld points on the rear suspension mounts for stiffness, and the entire body must undergo a "body rigidity assurance system" test. That basically means that giant robots shake the car mercilessly and measure the resulting vibration.

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Nissan's Yokohama plant has been responsible for the production of more than 35 million engines. But to date, none have received the specialized treatment given to the GT-R's twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V6. Despite all of the advanced computer technology that aids in the assembly of the new GT-R, humans, not computer-controlled robots, assemble the 473-horsepower motor.

The GT-R's motor is the most powerful production engine Nissan has ever built. Twin IHI turbochargers are integral to each exhaust manifold (the turbocharger exhaust housing itself is the exhaust manifold). Each turbocharger feeds 10.9 psi of air into two proprietary intercoolers, mounted on either side of the nose. The pressurized air makes its way through twin throttle bodies and into the engine. The intake plumbing, as well as the exhaust, is fully symmetrical which reduces backpressure and allows more instantaneous turbo response.

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A thermostatically controlled oil cooler system employs a separate scavenger pump to maintain a stable flow of oil to the turbochargers during the high g forces encountered in hard cornering. In addition, a separate collector inside the fuel tank stores enough fuel to maintain flow under these high-load conditions.

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Like the engine, the six-speed transmission is hand built too. The motor and rear-mounted transmission are connected by a carbon fiber driveshaft. But perhaps the most unique feature is not that this gearbox is actually mounted in the rear of the car with the transfer case, but that there's a second propeller shaft channeling torque from the transmission to the front differential (yes, there are two driveshafts that run the length of the car) - all in the name of weight distribution. Kazutoshi Mizuno (a.k.a. Mr. GT-R), will enthusiastically tell you that this is key for handling balance, as it allows the two masses to move independently of one another, dividing even and odd gears onto separate shafts. This is the recipe for quick gear changes.

Those crisp shifts fire torque to all four wheels, thanks to a system Nissan calls ATTESA E-TS. Though the AWD system has a rearward torque bias, up to 50-percent of the torque can be sent through the computer controlled center differential to the front wheels. How much torque depends on speed, lateral and transverse acceleration, steering angles, tire slippage and yaw rate. Believe it or not, Nissan's been doing all that stuff in GT-Rs since the early 1990's. The innovation found in the 2008 GT-R is the addition of one more sensor, which measures the difference between the desired yaw rate (as dictated by you with the steering wheel) and the actual direction of travel.

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Pop the cool flush door handle and slide behind the wheel. The look and feel of the interior is impressive and handily out-classes anything with a Nissan badge we've ever encountered. It's also obvious that a primary unwritten goal in building the GT-R was to out-tech everything on the market. There are more switches, displays, gadgets and gizmos than you could ever imagine. Yes, it has a 30GB hard-drive. And there are seemingly hundreds of pieces of information that can be accessed on the multi-function display. It's like a real life game of Gran Turismo 5. There are only three switches that are of vital importance though. One controls the suspension, another adjusts how quickly the transmission shifts and the last determines the intrusiveness of the VDC-R stability control. We're on the track; so all three are switched over to "R" mode, which is the most aggressive setting possible, short of turning the stability control off.

This is a nearly 3900-pound car (with driver installed), but it feels like it weighs half that much. The GT-R lapped the Nurburgring in 7 minutes 38 seconds with a pro driver in partially wet conditions--that's quicker than anything this side of a Porsche's now discontinued, nearly half-million dollar Carerra GT. Credit a well-chosen steering ratio and a drum tight chassis. Those 473 horses are very healthy and the 15-inch Brembo brakes are very strong. Downside? You can't hear the engine enough. This thing deserves to be heard.

Once off the track, we traveled on some fairly rough roads. And that allowed us the opportunity to test the "Comfort" settings of both the suspension and the transmission. Comfort mode elongates shift times by 200ms, to 400ms total, but unless you're driving hard, it's tough to notice. However, there is a perceptible difference between the "R" and "Comfort" suspension settings. When negotiating bumpy corners in "R" mode, you'll want to hold on to the wheel with both hands. Yes, it will spill your Starbucks.

Only 1500 GT-R's will find their way to the U.S. during the first year of production, which is of course, ridiculous. Nissan could sell 10 times that amount on Internet buzz alone. Expect to see a sticker price of $69,850 for a base car and $71,900 for the premium model, which gets a high-tech Bose stereo, heated seats and side airbags. In Japan, you could pay a premium of almost $2700 for "Ultimate Metal Silver" paint, which is very bright and very metallic. But only a handful of dealers are able to properly repair it. And it's only available in Japan.

Nissan wouldn't say whether the GT-R would spawn an even more hard-core variant. There have been "V-SPEC" models of previous GT-R's. Based on the grin that came over Mizuno-san's face when asked, we're guessing that a GT-R V-SPEC is inevitable. Until then, we're more than happy to give the regular GT-R pole position in our dream garage.